November 18, 2011 | 11:46 AM | By

Portraits of American Poverty

Check out these haunting images from TIME magazine, captured by German-based photojournalist Joakim Eskildsen. He traveled around the country, from Native American reservations in South Dakota to post-Katrina New Orleans, photographing Americans struggling in the current economy.

Although Eskildsen didn’t take photos of people in D.C., he very well could have; about 1 in 5 District residents live below the poverty line, although that number could actually be higher under a new government measure.


Eskildsen was also surprised by how pervasive poverty is in America. “Once you start digging, you realize people in poverty are everywhere, and you can really go through your life without seeing them before you yourself are standing in the food stamp line,” he says. “So many people spoke about the disappointment of the American Dream—this, they said, was the American Reality.”

Read more at: lightbox.time.com